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As Yale Professor Daniel Esty argues in the best-selling book Green to Gold, going ‘Green’ can open up many new paths to improved profitability; he concludes that: “companies using an environmental lens find ways to be more innovative and entrepreneurial than their competitors. These WaveRiders see emerging issues ahead of the pack. And they are better at finding new opportunities to increase sales and enhance brand value.” And just as large enterprises have used sophisticated IT systems to meet their security, privacy and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, so will they need to take a holistic, information-based approach to managing their organization’s changing environmental footprint. This will require an ongoing programme that optimizes the firm’s entire production and consumption life-cycle, encompassing issues such as power usage, supply- and demand-chain efficiency, disposals and recycling, office design, travel, employee cooperation, regulatory compliance, and even brand management. Achieving this will require significant IT initiatives, many based on the Web 2.0 technologies.
This Study Tour will attempt to help business and IT leaders identify and develop the new ideas, skills and capabilities that their organizations will increasingly require. By joining peers in an intensive week-long programme, delegates will gain first-hand knowledge of current and emerging practices by visiting and having discussions with approximately twelve leading edge suppliers and their customers, as well as consultants and venture capitalists. Attendees will also be the first to hear the initial results of the Leading Edge Forum’s collaboration with Professor Esty and his research team.
Questions to be answered through the Study Tour include: How are companies going about developing a holistic environmental strategy? What role is enterprise IT playing? What new products and technologies now under development show promise in helping reduce energy consumption? How can firms develop advanced environmental management systems that track and measure their changing environmental footprint? How are companies succeeding in getting employee and customer cooperation in environmental strategy initiatives such as reducing energy consumption, and improved recycling? How serious is the IT supplier industry about helping us turn Green? How do they see the economics of Green? What new capabilities will IT need to support these various Green initiatives? These questions will be answered through discussions and visits with Amazon, APC, Coburn Ventures, CSC’s Leading Edge Forum, Intel Capital, organicARCHITECT, San Francisco Department of the Environment, Sun Microsystems and Vmware, and with the experts who will accompany the Study Tour. Additionally, participants will learn from the questions and experiences of fellow delegates who share their interest in Green IT.
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